After a long hiatus, Band has returned to Benson! Heide Goertzen, who teaches History and Psychology, and has taken on the role of one of the advisors of the club, highlighted how important Band is for the community. “I think band is important at Benson because it brings, it helps bring school spirit and it helps bring this element to Benson that is missing, which is like this creative outlet that a lot of our students miss, and that has been a big part of our students’ lives.” Band meets during B flex, and on Wednesdays from 3:45pm–5:00pm.
When asked about her reasons for starting Band, Ms. Goertzen mentioned that Benson has a legacy of having a band, and she worked with the former Band director, Dan Foster, to get band started at Benson. Another person that helped with Band at Benson is Gene Burton, a retired band director at the Gresham-Barlow School District and the current leader of Warner Pacific University Band.
In spite of all the support and talent, starting up was not without difficulty. One issue was with getting the instruments to students. BPHS hasn’t had instruments for years, and the band does not have any access to instruments from PPS because they’re not a class. However, that’s where the club’s advisors stepped up. Gene Burton shared some instruments from Warner Pacific University. Jacob Patterson, who teaches radio at Benson, also provided some instruments.
Goertzten says that, due to the lack of instruments, she was originally thinking of starting a chorus instead — but later realized that many students at Benson played in middle school, and that bringing back band would be a great opportunity for Benson students. When asked about band becoming a class in the future, Goertzen stated, “We’re in the midst of huge budget cuts. They’re saying that budget cuts next year will be worse than they were this year. So it’s just hard for a lot of schools to give FTE for, you know, creative classes like music and art and dance and things like that.” In summary, it is unlikely for band to have a class in the near future, due to a lack of budget.
Benson Junior Noah Johnson-Green expressed, “I know that there are a lot of people who want to come to Benson but can’t justify [it] because of the lack of really any music programs. And so I think having this band and maybe hopefully some more curricular music programs that will lead to will just encourage growth of the school in general and just create a more positive and better atmosphere at the school.”
